


Weaving in the Wind

by Nyxelestia



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: External POV, Gaslighting, Gen, Identity Reveal, Mass Media, POV Multiple, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Public Relations, Social Media, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie) Spoilers, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-03 12:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19463779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxelestia/pseuds/Nyxelestia
Summary: Reminder: Spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home......"Hisface."Happy didn’t pretend to not understand.“…I don’t think you two will be able to live here, anymore,” Happy admitted, squeezing May’s hand. With his free hand, he pulled out his phone. “Soon as I take care of this, I’m calling for a car. Pack up what you can, for you and for Peter — I don’t now when you’ll be able to come back…if at all.”Wiping the wet off her face, May tore her faze away from the news to look at Happy.“And what does ‘taking care of this’ mean?”





	1. Happy Hogan

**Author's Note:**

> Just saw the movie yesterday and got this plotbunny. (Well, I got several plotbunnies, this one was the fastest to write.)
> 
> Do I have any idea where I'm gonna go with this? Nope.
> 
> Is that gonna stop me from posting this? Not even remotely.

The first time Happy ever saw May cry was as they watched Peter’s face get plastered all over the news.

He’d seen her _about_ to cry several times. For a while, it was pretty much any time Spider-Man made the news, though these days only when Spider-Man seemed to have a rough day. But she always held the tears in, to put on a strong face for Peter.

He’d also seen her _after_ crying, the day she’d found out Peter was Spider-Man in the first place. By the time Happy and Tony had made it to the Parkers’ apartment, her eyes were rimmed red and her face was just as splotchy to match, but her eyes had been dry when she tore them a new one for recruiting her kid as a child soldier in the first place.

This was the first time he’d actually seen her crying. Sitting on the couch Peter had left them on, where their conversation about their relationship had gotten cut-off by both their phones going off. FRIDAY had an extended reach into his phone, so a text from StarkIndustries' PR head to _turn on any local news channel_ had floated to the top of the notifications list.

Just in time to see Jameson fall for Beck’s bullshit hook, line, and sinker.

“Beck’s an idiot,” Happy promised. “We have the whole, real footage from the drones, not to mention SHIELD files, there’s a security conference about him in Europol-”

“His _face_.”

Happy didn’t pretend to not understand.

“…I don’t think you two will be able to live here, anymore,” Happy admitted, squeezing May’s hand. With his free hand, he pulled out his phone. “Soon as I take care of this, I’m calling for a car. Pack up what you can, for you and for Peter — I don’t now when you’ll be able to come back…if at all.”

Wiping the wet off her face, May tore her faze away from the news to look at Happy.

“And what does ‘taking care of this’ mean?”

Sighing, Happy grabbed the remote to mute the TV.

“I’m sorry,” Happy said. For a moment, the apartment was silent.

Well, as silent as an apartment in New York could ever be. There was the usual low droning of cars passing by, the quiet rush of pipes in the thin walls, and the old fridge humming in the kitchen.

Then Happy’s phone started with Pepper’s ringtone.

Both of them jerked in surprise…then May nodded, turning her attention back to the muted TV.

Thankfully, Jameson was an idiot, too — he had Peter’s _school picture_ up next time as he ranted and raved about whatever Happy was happy to not listen to. With a polite smile of every kid shoved in front of a camera on the first day of school, Peter couldn’t look further away from the accusations Jameson was lobbing at him.

But that was still a picture that millions upon millions of people were looking at, now.

Part of winning a war was knowing when to lose a battle, and this one was _done_ — they were never going to get Peter’s identity back under wraps.

So Happy wasn’t even going to try.

He was going in the opposite direction altogether.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated, getting up from the couch. “But I think a lot of what Peter has been hiding, needs to come out…including some stuff he didn’t want you to see.”

May frowned, not looking away from the TV. “…like what?”


	2. Pepper Potts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Pepper texted today’s chauffeur that they were about to leave, then pulled out her earphones to give Morgan 100% of her attention._
> 
> _“Sweetheart, I’m sorry, but we have to go-”_
> 
> _“_ Why?! _” she demanded. Her voice wasn’t rising yet, but it would soon._
> 
> _Luckily, she was very much her father’s daughter, with her father’s heart to match._
> 
> _“Peter is in trouble,” she said. “And we need to go help him.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd and not even edited, so if you spot any typos, please let me know! :)

Pepper had been out shopping with Morgan when her phone went off.

Standing by the Magic Treehouse display in Barnes and Noble, Morgan whirled around and zeroed in on Pepper’s purse, immediately recognizing the ringtone.

FRIDAY had two types of alerts that would get pushed through Pepper’s _Do Not Disturb_ setting.

One was for emergencies involving StarkIndustries as a company.

That wasn’t the one that was ringing.

Cutting off the distinct _Iron Man and Avengers_ beeping, Pepper plugged in the earphones so she could look and talk at the same time, without causing too much noise in the bookstore.

“Tell me what’s happening, Happy,” she asked. “Is the world ending again?”

“For Spider-Man,” was all he answered. “You hear the news yet?”

“What news?”

It took only two minutes for Pepper to digest the news and issue a preliminary plan.

Apparently Happy was on the same page as her, since he just said, “I think I already know which clips to use. Peter’s gonna hate it, and May’s…not gonna be happy, with any of us. But they should work.”

“Do it,” Pepper said, gesturing to Morgan to put the book back. She pouted, and Pepper sighed, crouching down in front of her. “Tell Peter to come to the…” She took a deep breath. “The tower.”

There was a moment of silence, as her implication started to sink in.

“Done,” Happy finally clipped out, before hanging up.

Pepper texted today’s chauffeur that they were about to leave, then pulled out her earphones to give Morgan 100% of her attention.

“Sweetheart, I’m sorry, but we have to go-”

“ _Why?!_ ” she demanded. Her voice wasn’t rising yet, but it would soon.

Luckily, she was very much her father’s daughter, with her father’s heart to match.

“Peter is in trouble,” she said. “And we need to go help him.”

Her eyes widened, and she practically shoved her book back onto the display — knocking over a few books on the other side of the low table — and Pepper had to hold her hand to keep her from sprinting out the door.

It killed Pepper to know this, but Morgan already had her father’s heroic heart.

~*~

Pepper would admit her middle class sensibilities occasionally galled at having a driver, even for her personal life, and in a luxury car at that.

But moments like this, she remembered why she had one, anyway.

No need to pull over and stop and breathe out her rage when she heard the video in full, and watched Jameson’s bullshit get broadcasted as if he had anything approaching journalistic integrity. Her driver could keep them on a steady path to the rendezvous point, despite Pepper’s shaking hands and pounding heart.

At least she had Morgan at her side.

When Pepper finally found a livestream of Spider-Man, he looked all alone.

Perched up on top of a lightpole, staring at the giant TV screen that was blaring advertisements now — but must’ve been where the news had been broadcasted, in front of hundreds, if not _thousands_ of people.

At least Pepper wasn’t the only one who knew not to trust Jameson.

 _“…no way,”_ whoever was holding the phone for the livestream was saying. _“That looked like a kid, a kid can’t be Spider-Man.”_

 _“You think they’d air shit like that if it weren’t true?”_ someone demanded from off-screen. The phone shook and moved, away from the lamppost, but whoever was talking didn’t appear on-screen. _“It makes sense, Spider-Man having an ego, and now that Iron Man is dead-”_

 _“Why would you_ do _that?!”_ an old woman shrieked from somewhere several feet away from the livestream. The camera veered back, bringing an old lady with a little handcart of groceries parked at her side into view — and the lamppost she was yelling towards. _“The world already loves you, you couldn’t share the spotlight, Spider-Man!?”_

On the lamppost, Spider-Man was still staring at the giant screen in apparent shock.

 _“Or should I say,_ Peter Parker _?!”_

Pepper quietly cursed when Spider-Man turned around — all but confirming at least this part of Jameson’s story.

And lending credibility to everything else he said, too.

 _“Murderer!”_ someone shouted from deep in the crowd.

In the screen, an old man scowled at the old lady — her husband? He was the same race as her, and was standing awfully close. _“Please, this Bugle bastard thinks the government’s putting chemicals in the water to turn frogs gay, you really buying this nonsense?”_

 _“This is such_ bullshit _!”_ said a voice from right behind the camera, presumably the young woman livestreaming this through her phone.

“That’s your word,” Morgan grumbled, cuddling into Pepper’s side. “Daddy says no one else but you is supposed to say it.”

“Daddy’s right,” Pepper muttered back absently, stroking Morgan’s hair and wondering if a four-year-old should even be watching this.

But Pepper couldn’t look away, and she didn’t want to keep Morgan in the dark.

 _“After the Decimation, Iron Man said Spider-Man was with him on Thanos’ old planet!”_ the voice continued. Several people in the crowd turned to face her — and the camera. _“Spider-Man fought_ with _Iron-Man and was blipped-”_

 _“Yeah, and now he doesn’t wanna share the limelight!”_ a non-binary looking courier with a bunch of envelopes challenged from a few feet away.

The livestreamer was apparently in a confrontational mood, because she approached-

-then moved past him, aiming the phone at Spider-Man, whose head was swiveling to and fro as people shouted up at him.

 _“Don’t listen to them, Spidey!”_

_“Mysterio was a hero!”_

_“Spider-Man’s one of ours!”_

_“Is he a child soldier?”_

_“I thought he was an Avenger!”_

_“No, he’s never-”_

All of that got drowned out by the live-streamer shouting, _“Don’t listen to them, Peter, we love you!”_

Spider-Man swiveled to face her and the camera directly. For a second, Pepper felt like he was looking right at _her_.

Then the livestreamer said, _“Huh, so his name really is Peter.”_

“Shit,” Pepper muttered.

“Shit,” Morgan agreed. Then, “Oops, that’s your word.”

“It is,” Pepper said, leaning in so Morgan could be squeezed in as tight as possible without getting out of her seatbelt. “But it’s probably the most accurate word to describe this situation.” Then, she looked down. “But that doesn’t mean _you_ should use it, okay?”

Morgan nodded, eyes fixed on the screen of Pepper’s tablet.

Pepper turned back…

…just in time to see Peter drop right into the crowd.

Specifically, between two people who were ready to fight each other: the courier and the live-streamer.

 _“Please don’t fight,”_ he said, holding out one hand towards each of them, as if to keep them physically apart. The courier spat on him, and someone _else_ took a swing at the courier. _“No!”_

The two Stark women watched helplessly as the crowd either closed in, or tried to get away from ‘the murderer’.

Someone actually took a run towards Spider-Man — but it wasn’t to attack him.

 _“Peter, get out of here!”_ the girl said, grabbing onto Spider-Man’s shoulder with one hand while the other pointed up in the general direction of the sky.

 _“I-”_ Spider-Man started, then a hand came up to his ear, as if taking a call. He probably was. _“Yeah, I just- I don’t, Happy I don’t- where? Okay, but where is…”_ Peter froze, which didn’t surprise Pepper at all — the tower was still rebuilding. _“Yeah, I’ll be there.”_ Spider-Man looked at the girl. _“I gotta go — Ms. Potts wants to see me.”_

Pepper winced, knowing who _else_ was going to approach the tower now that he’d said that.

Spider-Man said something to the girl, who didn’t seem to respond so much as practically yank Spider-Man away from another man — a scruffy homeless looking man — that tried to take a swing at Spider-Man.

 _“Listen to her, Spider-Man!”_ the livestreamer shouted, briefly drowning out all the other noise again. _“Get out of here! Get somewhere safe!”_

 _“Yeah, like a jail cell,”_ someone snarled from behind the livestreamer.

One didn’t become the CEO of the world’s most advanced tech firm outside of Wakanda by being a coward, nor get married to a superhero by acting on fear.

Nevertheless, Pepper breathed a sigh of relief — as did Morgan, drooping against her — when Spider-Man finally jumped up, first back on top of the pole, then away altogether, disappearing into the city.

But the livestream kept going, focusing on the girl that had just been talking to Peter.

 _“You were with him!”_ a middle-aged man in business attire accused, jabbing her finger at the girl. _“We saw you, swinging in together — you weren’t just another rescue, were you? You two were talking!”_

 _“You fucking Spider-Man, girlie?”_ a slightly younger woman next her snapped.

Pepper hissed, practically slamming the mute button in the corner of the screen. “That was definitely a bad word,” she informed Morgan. “A very mean one, too. Don’t ever use those.”

“Okay,” she agreed. Then she frowned at the screen. “Which one? ‘Fucking’ or ‘girlie’?”

Pepper winced at hearing such a harsh word come out of Morgan’s mouth. She knew that she would never be able to shelter Morgan as much as she wanted to — as much as Tony had wanted to — but that didn’t mean she wanted to throw Morgan to the sharks.

Unfortunately, sharks could scent blood from miles away, and Peter was metaphorically gushing with it, now.

“Neither,” Pepper said, knowing full well just what kind of life Iron Man’s daughter had to look forward to — the good, and the bad. “Don’t ever use either of those words.”

“Okay,” Morgan agreed. She pointed at the screen — which was still showing the stream. The girl had vanished, and now the stream seemed to be bouncing between several people shouting at each other. “Is Peter gonna be okay?”

“Yes,” Pepper promised. “He will be.”

~*~

Buying the Tower back had been surprisingly easy, after the battle and Tony’s death.

With the Avengers’ compound destroyed by Thanos, they’d needed a new headquarters.

The ‘A’ had even still been in there, though the years in the basement hadn’t been kind to it. Besides which, there was still a lot of on-going debate about whether to revive the Avengers as the name for the new team…or leave it to rest, along with half the founders of the team.

So the tower remained blank, but that didn’t stop anyone from calling it Stark Tower — or occasionally, even Avengers Tower.

Which was why Pepper asked Peter to go there in the first place.

Unfortunately, it was a big tower, so she hadn’t specified _where_ to meet her there — which she only realized as they pulled into the garage.

For a moment, Pepper just sat hugging Morgan tightly, now that they were freed from their seatbelts.

But only a moment. Pepper had work to do.

“And I think you can help me,” she added, looking down at Morgan. “I’ve got a plan, and I need your help. Can you be a brave little Iron Girl for me?”

Morgan nodded. “You gonna be Rescue?”

Pepper winced, but shook her head. “No. But I think I might need to be even braver.”

She could do it, though. For Tony’s legacy, she could be brave, and she could trust Spider-Man as much as Tony had.

The parking garage was huge, and even from the private section, it took several minutes for her and Morgan to make it to the lobby.

Of course, the doors were locked — the reception area for visitors only opened around business hours on weekdays, and the rest of the tower was aggressively locked behind biometric access and key-cards besides.

Peter technically had that access, the same level as any other Avenger did. He never used it, though, which was likely why he _forgot_ he still had that access, letting the reporters corner him just outside the glass doors.

Shiny and metallic, with the sun high in the sky and reflecting off the doors, it was unlikely anyone could see through the glass and into the lobby, which was likely the only reason no one had started pounding on the doors once Pepper started to slowly approach.

Even if they could, they were all too busy screaming questions at a terrified-looking Spider-Man. The handful of support staff milled towards the back of the reception area, clearly unsure of what to do. Pepper pointed towards the public elevators, and they quickly got the hint, vacating as fast as they could.

“Remember the plan?” Pepper asked Morgan. “It will be very scary-”

“I’m _Iron Girl_!” Morgan cried out, a stubborn look on her face that rivaled Tony’s. “I can do it!”

Pepper smiled sadly. “I know,” she said. “I’m just not sure _I_ can. It’s easy to put yourself in danger-”

“I won’t be!” Morgan protested, stomping her foot in righteous indignation. “You’re here and Spider-Man is here and Happy is on his way.”

She didn’t say anymore — and of course, as far as she knew, she didn’t have to say anymore.

As far as she knew, they were enough to protect her.

The breathtaking reality of how _not_ true that was almost made Pepper put a halt to this. There were other ways to help Peter that wouldn’t involve Morgan, that wouldn’t involve Pepper risking her only child and one of the only pieces of Tony she truly had left.

But then, Peter had been like a son to Tony — and almost like a step-son to Pepper, too. He was Pepper’s first call to babysit Morgan, and the closest thing to a sibling that Morgan had.

That Morgan would ever have.

After all the times Pepper had been woken up by Tony’s nightmares of Peter’s death, she knew she had to do this.

Besides, even if Morgan wouldn’t really have a choice but to listen to Pepper now, she knew full well what her daughter would say about it in the future, if she realized how close they were to helping Peter when Pepper turned away.

“You’re right,” Pepper said. Taking a deep breath, she held onto Morgan’s hand as they strode off to the last of the line of doors fronting the reception lobby.

It furthest from the small but growing crowd.

Pressing her thumb to the scan pad and typing in a code, Pepper could feel her heartbeat rising in time with the door chime.

But any woman leader in the business world learned how to hide their fear and keep their cool — and especially a tech firm leader like Pepper.

With only another deep breath to brace herself, she opened the door.

_“Spider-Man, is your name really Peter Parker?!”_

_“-what do you have to say about these allegations-”_

_“-where were you when the Elemetal attacked in Mexico-”_

_“-dimension that Quentin Beck is from, can you comment on Mysterio-”_

If Morgan was as affected by the tsunami of sound as soon as the door opened, she didn’t show it. She didn’t even seem to notice, because she was off like a shot.

None of the reporters noticed the door opening behind them at first, but the ones closest to Pepper certainly noticed a little girl tickling and wiggling through the forest of legs.

Pepper knew, as Tony Stark had known, the power of a grand entrance. Their daughter inherited that power perfectly.

When Morgan reached Peter’s side, she shouted — with all the confidence of a Stark and assurance of a Potts — “Mommy told me to come and save you!”

It took all of Pepper’s willpower _not_ to cry, as the memories of one of Morgan’s last days with her father slammed into her all at once.

But then, that had been the point. Spider-Man reacted like he always did to a child clinging onto him: he crouched down and effortlessly scooped her into his arms, holding her tight and secure.

Taking in the various logos on the cameras and microphones, Pepper could already calculate the coverage on this adorable moment. ABC 7 should have around 150,000 viewers, FOX 5 would have about a 120,000, and CNN would probably air this moment at least a dozen times today, with probably a million new viewers each time.

With any luck, most of them would see this _before_ seeing the Bugle’s nonsense.

“Th-thanks,” Spider-Man said, one arm supporting Morgan’s behind as she settled onto his hip, the other hand coming around to rest protectively around her head. “For saving me.”

“And we’re supposed to go to her office,” Morgan continued, pointing upward, almost skyward. “She left the window open.”

Morgan looked over at Pepper — with her gaze followed by Peter, and every reporter there.

Pepper caught Spider-Man’s eye, and nodded once.

Peter didn’t waste any time. Holding Morgan tightly to him, he jumped up, shooting over two dozen feet into the air and slamming onto concrete. Morgan shrieked in childish delight, happy to be almost flying _like daddy_ and too young to understand just how dangerous those heights were.

Though it’s not likely she would care once she did understand. After that livestream, they saw a slightly older photograph someone had taken of Spider-Man swinging while holding onto a teenage girl, one whose hair looked like the girl’s from the livestream.

Pepper knew. She knew what a broken body looked like, she could imagine far too easily what Morgan would look like; how many nightmares of that did she have, when Morgan would watch old videos of Iron Man with that painfully familiar look in her eye?

She knew, but even more, she knew Peter would never drop Morgan.

A picture was worth a thousand words, and a video even moreso. She waited just long enough for some reporters to stop following Spider-Man’s upward progress and swing their cameras back down to Pepper, watching _them_ instead of her daughter — then slipped right back into the lobby, slamming the door shut behind her just before they could reach her.

The hardest moment of the day was to look _away_ from Spider-Man and Morgan — and to do it casually. But she'd done it, and it was over, now.

Their window to change the narrative of Spider-Man was closing, and Pepper knew how to make every second count. Jameson accused Spider-Man of wanting to take sole ownership of the legacy of Tony Stark.

By trusting him with Iron Man’s daughter — with _her_ daughter — Pepper undermined the Bugle’s entire narrative, without saying a single word.

**Author's Note:**

> (If you spot any typos, please let me know!)


End file.
